Damage

There are currently 5 main types of damage, they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Chaos. Fire, Cold, and Lightning are collectively known as Elemental Damage. Damage reduction from armour only affects physical damage. Each of the elemental damage types has it's own resistance value (e.g. "Fire resistance") which is viewable in the character sheet. Resistances reduce damage taken, and are normally capped at 75%. However, there are passives and items that can increase your maximum resistances to allow for values higher than 75%.

If a passive does not specify whether it's weapon or spell damage, it will affect both.

This page focuses on damage being dealt by the player. For information on how the elements affect you, see Status Ailments and Resistances.

Physical Damage

Physical Damage is usually dealt by weapons (melee or range) but can also come from some spells, like Detonate Dead, Bear Trap, Ethereal Knives and Shockwave Totem.

Melee Physical Damage Passives

Melee Physical Damage Passives increase damage for all types of melee weapons.

Basic Melee Physical Damage Passives Include:

• 3 x Melee Damage (4%)
• 2 x Melee Damage (6%)
• 2 x Melee Damage (8%)
• 3 x Melee Damage (10%)
• 2 x Melee Damage (12%)

Notable Melee Physical Damage Passives include:

• 1 x Weapon Artistry (10% Increased Melee Physical Damage and 3% Additional Block Chance while Dual Wielding or holding a Shield)

For a total of 13 Melee Physical Damage Passives granting 104% Increased Melee Physical Damage and 3% Additional Block Chance while Dual Wielding or holding a Shield.

Fire Damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals fire damage, the Ignite Status Ailment is inflicted.

Fire Damage Passives

Basic Passives affecting Fire Damage include:

• 2 x Burn Damage (10%)
• 2 x Burn Damage (15%)
• 1 x Burn Duration (30%)
• 16 x Increased Fire Damage (6%)

Notable Passives affecting Fire Damage include:

• 1 x Blaze (8% Increased Damage, 5% Chance to Ignite)
• 1 x Fire Walker (12% Increased Fire Damage, +12% Increased Fire Resistance)
• 2 x Immolation/Arsonist (18% Increased Fire Damage)
• 1 x Pyromaniac (30% Increased Burning Damage)
• 1 x Lava Lash (30% Increased Fire Damage with Weapons)

For a total of 27 Passives affecting Fire Damage granting 152% Increased Fire Damage, 80% Increased Burning Damage, 30% Increased Fire Damage with Weapons, 30% Increased Burning Duration, 12% Increased Fire Resistance and 5% Chance to Ignite.

Cold Damage

Hitting an enemy with cold damage can inflict the Chill Status Ailment. Critical hits with cold damage can inflict the Freeze Status Ailment.

Cold Damage Passives

Basic Passives that improve Cold Damage include:

• 10 x Cold Damage (6%)
• 3 x Chill Duration (15%)
• 1 x Chill Duration (22%)
• 2 x Freeze Duration (15%)
• 2 x Weapon Cold Damage (10%)

Notable Passives that improve Cold Damage include:

• 1 x Breath of Rime (Enemies Become Chilled as They Unfreeze)
• 1 x Freeze (8% Increased Cold Damage, 5% Chance to Freeze)
• 1 x Frost Walker (12% Increased Cold Damage, 12% Increased Cold Resistance)
• 1 x Heart of Ice (18% Increased Cold Damage)
• 1 x Ice Bite (30% Increased Cold Damage with Weapons)

For a total of 23 Passives that improve Cold Damage granting 98% Increased Cold Damage, 67% Increased Chill Duration, 50% Increased Cold Damage with Weapons, 30% Increased Freeze Duration, 12% Increased Cold Resistance, 5% Chance to Freeze and "Enemies Become Chilled as They Unfreeze".

Lightning Damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals lightning damage, the Shock Status Ailment is inflicted.

Lightning Damage Passives

Basic Passives improving Lightning Damage include:

• 1 x Chance to Shock (10%)
• 11 x Lightning Damage (6%)
• 3 x Shock Duration (15%)

Notable Passives improving Lightning Damage include:

• 1 x Arcing Blows (30% Increased Lightning Damage with Weapons)
• 1 x Lightning Walker (12% Increased Lightning Damage, 12% Increased Lightning Resistance)
• 1 x Shock (8% Increased Lightning Damage, 5% Chance to Shock)
• 1 x Static Blows (45% Increased Shock Duration on Enemies, 10% Chance to Shock)
• 1 x Storm Cast (12% Increased Lightning Damage, 2% Increased Cast Speed

For a total of 20 Passives that improve Lightning Damage granting 98% Increased Lightning Damage, 90% Increased Shock Duration, 30% Increased Lightning Damage with Weapons, 25% Chance to Shock, 12% Increased Lightning Resistance and 2% Increased [Cast Speed]].

Elemental Damage

Elemental Damage Passives affect all types of Elemental Damage (Fire, Cold and Lightning).

Elemental Damage Passives

Basic Passives that improve Elemental Damage include:

• 4 x Elemental Damage (5%)
• 2 x Elemental Damage (8%)
• 8 x Weapon Elemental Damage (10%)

Notable Passives that improve Elemental Damage include:

• 1 x Catalyze (30% Increased Elemental Damage with Weapons)
• 1 x Celestial Walker (10% Increased Elemental Damage, 10% to All Elemental Resistances)
• 1 x Elementalist (10% Increased Elemental Damage, 10 Intelligence)

For a total of 17 Passives that improve Elemental Damage granting 110% Increased Elemental Damage with Weapons, 56% Increased Elemental Damage, 10% to All Elemental Resistances and 10 Intelligence.

Chaos Damage

Chaos damage ignores energy shield, reducing life directly. One can become immune to Chaos Damage with Chaos Inoculation Keystone Passive.

The Notable Passive Adder's Touch allows you to poison enemies with Critical Strikes with Daggers. Deals chaos damage equal to 10% of the damage done by the hit per second, for 2 seconds.

The passives Chaos Resistance increase your Chaos Resistance by 16%/8%.

Chaos damage skills involve:

Poison Arrow skill's poison cloud damage over time.

Blood Rage skill's self-damage over time.

Viper Strike skill. Enemy Viper Strikes can be dodged with sufficient Evasion.

Added Chaos Damage support gem.

Converted Damage

There are many skills, supports, and item mods which will convert one type of damage into another. Converted damage gains bonuses from both the type of damage it was converted from AND the type of damage it is converted to. The following is an example taken from the Path of Exile forums.

Mark_GGG wrote: I have glacial hammer converting 50% of my physical damage to cold damage, and Cold to Fire converting 50% of my cold damage to fire damage. Lets say my weapon deals 100 physical damage (in actuality there'll be two numbers, an minimum and a maximum, but we only need to do the maths once for the example, it's applied exactly the same to both).

I have: 10% Increased Physical Damage, 20% Increased Elemental Damage, 5% Increased Cold Damage, 15% Increased Fire Damage,

My weapon's base damage is 100 physical. 50% of this will be converted to cold, 50% of that (25% of the total) will be converted again to fire.

The physical damage will be affected only by the physical damage increase, for a 10% increase.

The cold damage will be affected by physical, elemental and cold increases, for a total 35% increase (10 + 20 + 5).

The fire damage is affected by physical, elemental, cold and fire increases, for a total 50% increase (10 + 20 + 5 + 15).

Physical: 50 of the base damage ends up being physical, with a 10% increase applied = 55 Physical Damage

Cold: 25 of the base damage ends up being cold, with a 35% increase applied = 34 Cold Damage (33.75 rounds up)

Fire: 25 of the base damage ends up being fire, with a 50% increase applied = 38 Fire Damage (37.5 rounds up)

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